


running on empty

by smallredboy



Category: House M.D.
Genre: Angst, Canon Disabled Character, Chronic Pain, Episode: s03e01 Meaning, M/M, Sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:01:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21515704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallredboy/pseuds/smallredboy
Summary: House runs, and runs, and runs.
Relationships: Greg House/James Wilson
Comments: 11
Kudos: 92
Collections: Allbingo, Prompt Table Challenge: Shippy Building





	running on empty

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [running on empty](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25262509) by [ист из ап (magralhea)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magralhea/pseuds/%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%20%D0%B8%D0%B7%20%D0%B0%D0%BF)



> im.... sad :(
> 
> enjoy!

The commute to Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital has become crucial for House.

His pain won't come back. His pain  _ can't _ come back. The mere thought makes him sick to his stomach, makes him want to start popping pills again, even though there's no excuse for it this time around. He runs, and he runs, and he runs, and he tries to calm the part in himself that says  _ this is temporary. You do not deserve to have it this good _ .

But he ignores it. He goes, and he gets to work, and Wilson teases him about running so much, about getting to work sweat-damp. But in Wilson's eyes there's that  _ understanding _ , that  _ I hope it lasts, too _ . Wilson is too empathetic, empathetic enough to read through him, see him for who he is.

He is, overall,  _ scared _ . He runs, and he runs, and he  _ runs _ because it might not last forever.

"It's a fifty fifty chance," Cuddy had told him after the surgery, while he was hopped up on painkillers. Nothing out of the ordinary, anyhow, considering. The pain might come back, the pain might not come back. You'll either go back to your cane, or you won't.

It seemed easy to take the chance, at the time. Not anymore. The fifty-fifty hangs over his head like a nightmare that can and might happen. He has his old life back; he can run, he can do sports, he can mess around in a skateboard and not have to look longingly at a golf course. He can  _ do _ things.

"Are you happy?" Wilson asks one day, over lunch.

House snaps up and sneers. "What kind of therapist question is that?"

"It's a genuine question," he replies, calm as ever, picking at his food. "Are you happy?"

"Of  _ course _ I'm happy. My leg is  _ fine _ ."

"It could get bad again any time."

House nearly throws juice at him. "Jeez, had no idea, thank you, Dr. Wilson, for those unbearable news."

"You can't place your happiness on your leg until you're sure it won't revert back to where it was."

"So you'd prefer for me to be miserable?"

Wilson sighs, and leans over to take his hand in his. "I want you to find a source of happiness you can trust to not go away."

Before he can stop himself, he says, "I have you."

Wilson lights up and squeezes, brushes his thumb over his knuckles. "I know. But there should be more than one thing that makes you happy." He leans in to kiss him. "Can you figure out what it could be?"

House's stomach is all up in knots. It started off as abrasive, as their conversations usually did when he got snappy, but he had said something sappy, so now all that energy had drained away. 

"Of course."

A few days later, House feels a dull ache in his leg. He wakes up and he nearly panics, nearly collapses in and on himself from the fear. No, his mind choruses, no no no no no. This cannot be happening.

He searches for Wilson's body, grabs at him, makes pathetic little noises right into his nightshirt. 

"Are you okay?" Wilson asks, voice charged with sleep, his hand awkwardly leaning toward him, holding him, it snaking around his waist, squeezing at his hip comfortingly.

_ No, I am not okay, _ House thinks,  _ But I have you. _

He has Wilson, and that will help in the long run. For the meanwhile, he can cry and he can be pathetic all he wants. Wilson  _ gets _ him, after all.


End file.
